Disclaimer: A Steam code was provided by the developer for review purposes on PC.

The folks over at Vector Unit are no strangers to water-based racing games. Riptide GP: Renegade is a continuation of their expertise in this field. Following up to the two previous entries in the Riptide GP series,Renegade offers a ‘story’, along with a slightly more robust set of features. While the gameplay virtually remains the same, the additions made to the formula do add a more depth over what has been previously offered.

The game’s aforementioned plot follows Impact, a GP racer who was locked up for taking part in an off-record race with his rival. His nemesis turns out to be the one that set him up, thus resulting in his conviction. After being released from prison, Impact immediately sets off to climb the GP ranks again in order to take down his rival turned arch-enemy, that is now the champion of the sport. The addition of a story adds some drama to the formula, but it really wasn’t necessary. There are many other arcade racers out there with stories, like a lot of the Need for Speed titles, but I never found it to be a necessity most of the time; a-la Mario Kart. Seeing that the game doesn’t have any cut-scenes or even voice-acting, it makes the inclusion of a story feel even more forced.

With the story taking place in the Career mode, you have no choice but to endure it in order to make any sort of meaningful progression. The game puts you behind the handle bars of a vehicle which is called a ‘hydro jet’. They can be customized to your liking from the very beginning, allowing you to change the color scheme and number of your ride. Winning races will allow you to earn cash in order to upgrade them. There are multiple hydro jets to choose from, each one possessing their own set of stats. It’s great that you’re able to buy upgrades for them, but winning is a lot easier said than done. The game offers no way to select the difficulty of the AI, thus leaving you to fend for yourself with each event. This may sound pretty straightforward, but the AI really is no joke.

From the very beginning of my hydro jet career I was restarting races. It’s one thing for a game to be challenging, but there were times when it really just felt unfair; it’s as if the expectation is to be perfect from the start, otherwise you definitely have no chance of making it to the end. This is regardless of the terrain or racers you are confronted with.

The AI definitely doesn’t hold anything back in Career mode, which makes things frustrating.

As you would expect, racing on water is a completely different experience from racing on land. The game does a good job at making it all feel different, but it’s definitely a little more frustrating than I would have hoped. My hydro jet felt like a tank with rocket boosters at times, even after upgrading the handling. And seeing that the AI seems like its permanently stuck in ‘super advanced mode’, any mistakes you make could very well cost you the race. Even with that said, it’s not all bad.

Just like in the past games, you can pull off cool tricks. Successfully landing a trick will cause your Boost gauge to fill, something that you’re definitely going to need in each race. The control inputs are simple enough, and there’s a large variety. New tricks can even be unlocked via Skill Points, which are earned by placing as high as possible in each race. Skill points can also be spent on actual skills, such as getting a longer boost, or being able to Draft behind opponents. There’s also a pretty decent variety of races, such as the traditional Point A – Point B style and others like Slalom and Elimination. To tie-in with the story, the game also offers Boss Battle races. Winning them will unlock new vehicles. Outside of the Career, there’s also the usual Quick Race mode, along with local and online multiplayer options. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try out the online multiplayer due to playing the game early before its official release.

Gameplay wise, Renegade isn’t really all that bad. It has its flaws, but there’s still a lot of fun to be had with the sense of speed and cool tricks. Not to mention that the various locales are also pretty nice, even though their themes do kind of mesh together. How’s the rest of the package?

The visuals really haven’t changed all that much from Riptide GP 2. The water effects still look nice, along with the vehicles being pretty detailed. You can actually see a lot of individual moving parts, which was a nice touch. The stages won’t exactly wow you, but they don’t look terrible. Each vehicle sounds pretty similar to each other, but the motors are nice enough. Speaking of sound, the music selection is made up entirely of electronic/techno and dubstep. They match the theme of the game pretty nicely, but if you aren’t a fan of those genres then you may be pretty annoyed. Overall, the presentation is nice. It won’t blow you away, but it’s not bad to look at either. The relatively simple visuals also allow those with less powerful systems to be able to run the game at a decent framerate.

⇁ THE BOTTOM LINE ⇀

The game has its flaws, but it still has some fun moments.

At the end of the day, Riptide GP: Renegade is best described as being a mixed bag. It has a lot of great new ideas, but the overall execution is mostly hit-and-miss. The story feels tacked-on and unnecessary, while the difficult AI makes it all the more frustrating to even try progressing through the Career mode. Winning a race should always feel rewarding, but it honestly feels more tiring due to the many times that you will have to restart a single race just to at least try and make it in 3rd place. Nevertheless, having the ability to upgrade and customize your vehicle is great and is a good incentive to try and do your best in each event. The visuals aren’t anything that will dazzle you, but the water effects do look great and the vehicles are pretty detailed.

So, is it really worth a buy? Well, yes, and no. If you’re a fan of the Riptide GP series then you may actually enjoy it, regardless of its flaws. If you’re just getting into series, however, I’d really recommend you check out Riptide GP 2, as it offers a more balanced experience than Renegade. At only $15, Renegade is a decent price, but the overall difficulty may leave some thinking that the money could have been better spent. Even so, I can say that it’s notreally a bad game, it just has its fair share of flaws that stop it from being what I would consider ‘great’.

It’s a secret to no one that Rocket League is a massively popular game. A common sight in the YouTube gaming community, the title has proven to be very successful. Having launched only one year ago, it’s astounding that the title has already achieved a user-base of over 19 million. Talk about an overnight sensation!

With the majority of the gaming world being engrossed in violent shooters and action-adventure titles, it’s nice to see something that’s more lighthearted and focused on good, clean fun get some (more than decent) recognition. Rock on, Rocket League!

The ever-popular NASCAR franchise is no stranger to the video game scene, and we’ll be getting a new one in just a few months.

NASCAR Heat Evolution is actually the first NASCAR game to arrive on current generation systems. It features over 40 drivers and will include all 23 licensed NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tracks. In addition to this, there will also be a Career and Season Mode, as well as online multiplayer. One interesting gameplay feature is that the AI will actually adapt itself to your own personal performance. Better hone your skills fast!

Greg Bargas here, Editor-in-Chief at Gaming Enthusiast gamingenthusiast.net PC Gaming Enthusiast. First, I’d like to thank anyone that has read any one of our reviews here, engaged us on social media, or have taken the time out of their day from playing Pokemon GO to read this. So, thank you!

You might not see it in this simple site here, but we’ve grown over the course of the years. Our coverage on gaming has expanded to cover the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo, and of course, PC gaming platform. It was always our vision to bring gamers together regardless of their preferred gaming genre or device chosen to play that game on. And, seeing this as a huge priority for us, we’ve decided to do something a little bit bigger than ourselves.

Enthusiast Gaming as a whole has grown over the course of its years. We’ve hosted events like Enthusiast Gaming Live, and our most ambitious yet—Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo. We are proud of the work we do in covering games. And, we know the gaming community is passionate about the games in it. You could even say that we are all enthusiasts at heart.

With the vast majority of gaming adapting and evolving, we too must grow with it. That is why we’ve made the decision to close PC Gaming Enthusiast. Well, sort of.

The majority of our content here has served its purpose. It’s allowed us to cover events like the Game Developers Conference (GDC), and of course, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) year after year. There is also a community aspect to it all. Conversations about gaming don’t start and stop when an article concludes. They don’t cease to exist when a trivial game releases. They continue on. And, we want to deliver a platform for you to continue those conversations and express the most meaningful aspect to gaming: YOU.

Please join us on enthusiast.gg, a platform that is dedicated to bringing all enthusiasts under one roof. There you will find various communities. And of course, one of those communities is dedicated to the PC gaming platform. We hope you take a brief moment to create an account, or you can surely continue lurking in the shadows. We don’t mind.

This will be the last article to be featured on PC Gaming Enthusiast/gamingenthusiast.net. It’s not goodbye by any means as we will all be present on the new site.

Video game marketing has become deeply complex since the turn of the millennium. No longer is it dominated by a few trailers, a full page ad in gaming magazines, or the occasional TV spot. The modern video game marketer makes full use of modern media, which includes both social media and the huge secondary video game industry consisting of the press and entertainment personalities. These forms of media open both lots of new ways to promote games to the highly-engaged video game community, but they also open up lots of avenues for deception and to skirt the rules of traditional advertising.

The deceptive marketing of video games has long been a concern, but recent events have heightened the scrutiny. Warner Brothers, for example, has recently been investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission regarding breach of US advertising law in its deceptive promotion of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. The company paid YouTube personalities like PewDiePie to give the game positive coverage, but this payment wasn’t clearly disclosed and even refuted by PewDiePie via his YouTube channel.

It’s likely a common practice in the industry. These days, early versions of games are released to popular YouTube personalities and Twitch streamers to build hype for the game. This can be seen right now, for example, in the closed alpha for EA DICE’s Battlefield 1, which is popular on Twitch, yet not generally available to the public. This type of publicity may be on-side advertising regulations, but it opens up a lot of grey areas that both press and the gaming entertainment establishment can become embroiled in. And it gets worse when money is involved.

The press has long had to deal with these issues and has come under scrutiny for it. In this article, I explore the tangled relationship between the video game industry, the gaming press, and the gaming entertainment establishment and the many ways this can hurt the average video game consumer.

The Familiar Problem of the Press

The press, by virtue of its existence, provides valuable exposure for new games to the gaming public. The press has thus been traditionally critical to the success and marketing of video games, even if the modern video game entertainment industry is slowly supplanting it. The press has historically provided the majority of the information about new games, as well as indications as to whether a game would be worth playing. By being on hand at major press events like the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) or the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the press could form the link between the game makers and the general public, asking important questions and getting the information that consumers wanted. Press also traditionally had early access to games in order to review them in time for the game’s release, providing important information to prospective purchasers.

Our team was front and center during the Xbox press conference at E3 2016.

But while the game-makers have traditionally benefited from the press, the press is also largely reliant on the goodwill of the game makers. It’s hard to run a successful video game press publication unless you have access to the publishers at the major gaming events, and it’s also much harder to run timely video game reviews unless you’re receiving those games early. To give you an example, our own organization receives review copies in certain cases, while in other cases we purchase the games on release ourselves. This largely depends on our relationship with the developers or their marketing firm. While we don’t believe this affects our review scores, it’s easy to understand how it could, especially since marketers have been known to blacklist press outlets that don’t play by their rules. We therefore have a policy of disclosing when we’ve received a review copy.

This symbiotic relationship between the press and the industry isn’t unique to video games. It’s an element of any enthusiast press, whether that be in the automotive industry or other entertainment media. And all video game press is enthusiast press. The name of this organization, of course, includes the word “enthusiast” in the name, but even the biggest press outlets are enthusiast press outlets. People enter this industry primarily because they’re passionate about video games and want to talk about them. This differentiates video games press from the mainstream media. The latter (ideally) is doing what it’s doing to be the “fourth estate,” the group that investigates and challenges existing authority, holding power accountable to the public, as well as disseminating important information.

Traditional media generally doesn’t need or try to maintain any close commercial ties to the entities they report on. They’re often antagonistic. Video game journalists have to try to balance good relationships with marketers and game makers while still maintaining editorial integrity. But while we hope we provide useful information and perspective, we’re hardly performing the same function as the mainstream media.

The problem of abuse is therefore high. It’s in the potential interests of both the press and the game makers to collude in order to provide positive coverage to certain games. The loser here, of course, is the consumer who has been lied to. Because of this, the press has an obligation, both legal and ethical, to disclose when they’re receiving some benefit from the game makers in exchange for the coverage. But even this doesn’t address the problem of whether the press might give positive coverage to a game so as to not be blacklisted and blocked by the game maker from future access to the information and review copies on which their existence relies. Unfortunately, there’s no good way of doing this. Video game consumers must be aware that these problems exist. They should also attempt to hold game makers that use deception or blacklisting accountable with their wallets.

The worst abuses of the press can come in the form of “native advertising.” This is a form of advertising in which an advertisement is made to appear to be a normal (or “native”) article or video produced by an outlet’s editorial staff. These pieces may be created by the advertiser, or by the normal editorial staff, but in either case it makes little difference. It must be clearly disclosed that the article is not normal content. Merely calling it “sponsored content” isn’t adequate, either, as that’s a nebulous term that can encompass any number of possible relationships. It might merely mean that someone has paid to have their name associated with an existing piece (which also should be disclosed). The disclosure should make it clear whether or not the piece would even exist if not for the compensation, and what the incentive was for its existence.

The New Problem of the Entertainers

The “traditional” video gaming press is slowly being supplanted by the relatively new video game entertainment industry. Video game consumers now obtain much of their information about games by watching YouTube let’s plays and Twitch streams, or even following the rapidly growing eSports scene. Even if it won’t fully supplant the press, its influence is undoubtedly enormous.

Because of this influence, many of the same problems that apply to the press also apply to this burgeoning industry, where the rules of advertising are even less likely to be understood. Indeed, many people, including the streamers and YouTubers themselves, might not see what they’re doing as a form of marketing or promotion. This is understandable in many cases. If you’re just playing a game you bought yourself and sharing it with your viewers, it doesn’t seem like a promotion. But it’s a wholly different thing when you’re given a copy of a game, or early access to a game, on the basis of your popularity with the clear motivation of marketing exposure.

The problem is that the dangerous symbiotic relationship can form just as easily in the video game entertainment industry. Game makers certainly have an interest in getting their games played by the most popular YouTube personalities or streamers, and streamers and YouTubers have an interest in continuing to get early access to new games. For example, if you’re the only streamer, or one of the few streamers, playing a major forthcoming release on Twitch, you’re going to get a lot of viewership. Having a good relationship with video game marketers is a huge advantage as a streamer over the considerable competition.

Thus, in my view, streamers should make these relationships clear so that their viewership isn’t misled. While this might be debatable, it’s not debatable that when a streamer or YouTuber is paid or otherwise incentivized to provide positive coverage, or any coverage at all, that must be disclosed clearly and in such a way as to not be missed. PewDiePie said he had included a small note of being sponsored by Warner Bros. in the description for his YouTube video on Shadow of Mordor, as per WB’s instructions, but viewers had to click on the “Read More” tab to see it, and it wouldn’t appear anywhere the video was shared or embedded.

The problem is compounded by the fact that many of these streamers and YouTubers don’t likely see themselves as press or publishers involved in the general world of commercial media, and thus subject to laws of general application. One YouTuber, defending his misleading promotion of his own CS:GO skin gambling website, even said he asked a YouTube employee if anything more than a “sponsored” note was needed, and relied on that employee’s response. Unfortunately for him, YouTube, nor its terms of service, are the law.

Syndicate was one of the YouTubers that owned a CS:GO skin gambling website and promoted it on his YouTube Channel

Some argue that these types of promotions are still a legal grey area, but this isn’t really true. While policies and guidelines specific to native advertising and sponsored social media have only recently been forthcoming, the law has always generally prohibited misleading and deceptive advertising. Hiding the fact that an advertisement is an advertisement falls clearly into those categories.

It’s important that gamers remember that, while it may appear that popular streamers and YouTubers are just successful members of the community of game players, the same can be said of most media, and they deserve similar scrutiny with respect to their marketing activities. Most of these successful personalities, after all, do it for a living, and should thus be considered professionals. We should expect a certain level of professionalism from them.

The Skeptical Consumer

There’s nothing new about deceptive advertising, nor about hidden sponsorship and fake endorsements. Nothing about new media makes these rules different. The problem is that the creators of the new media, often single individuals, don’t know the rules or think that they’re performing advertising functions. So far, new media creators have been forced to take a crash course in copyright law, and a basic understanding of their rights and obligations is now fairly widespread with respect to that area of law. However, a forced crash course in basic advertising law might soon be forthcoming. Until then, video gamers should maintain a healthy skepticism about overly positive coverage, especially where the source looks like they might be getting favorable treatment from the game makers.

Team17, the studio behind the popular Worms series, is serving up a completely different kind of game—an arcade cooking title. That’s right.

On August 3rd, Team17 will be rolling out the dough of Overcooked. The game will have players taking on the role of a chef as they deal with the madness of cooking dozens of meals before the clock runs out. Overcooked features both single player and co-op modes. Check out the trailer:

Judging by the trailer, it actually looks pretty fun. Interestingly enough, Sean Murray (the mind behind No Man’s Sky) is actually fond of the game. Guess it’s okay to be excited, then? Overcooked will be sizzling its way onto PC, PS4 and Xbox One next month.

The next installment in the annual Farming Simulator series will be coming later this year, and the dev-team had some (exciting?) news to share recently. Farming Simulator ’17 will introduce a playable female character for the first time in the series. The announcement was made via a Tweet, which comes paired with a handful of screenshots to show off the female farmer.

Play as a female farmer as you explore new vehicles, animals and crops in Farming Simulator 17! Available Oct. 25. pic.twitter.com/oPGsvbpB59

Gender equality is a pretty hot topic these days, surprisingly even in the gaming world as well. So, if there are any female fans of the Farming Simulator series, then this news should be most exciting to you! As the Tweet says, Farming Simulator ’17 will plow its way onto the market on October 25th on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Ubisoft published an experimental physics-based adventure-puzzle title from one of its smaller studios (Ubisoft Reflections) last year called Grow Home. The game was surprisingly successful, so successful that the company proudly announced at this year’s E3 that it would be getting a full-fledged sequel—Grow Up. Check out the E3 trailer:

The game already looks like it’s going to be even more fun than the original! Ubisoft has officially announced that it will be releasing on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on August 16th. While you wait, check out our review of Grow Up’s predecessor—Grow Home.